Gessler Daquise

Absolutely best Polish food you can get. Amazing service, very tentative, chatty, willing to go extra mile for you to have a great time. However, be prepared. This is not restaurant like any other in London. Be open-minded, and you will be amazed

Limited menu, three desserts to choose from, very short wine list. Decor nondescript, service average once you manage to get the staff attention. Food delivered to the table by endless line of waiters with hot pots in their hands does not add to the overall experience. I ordered 'marinated beetroot' out of curiosity, more fool me. For £7 what I got was one betroot chopped into four pieces, dressed with a teaspoon of extremely mild horseraddish sauce. Completely tasteless. Mains were ok, but nothing to write home about. All in all, it was ok-ish though somewhat overpriced.

I have now been three times in the last month and passing the word around. The food is excellent, the serving staff are professional. It is not overpriced in my opinion and Ted the Matre D is charming and makes you feel really welcome, a real contrabution to the eating experience.

What an experienceeee!!! I am Polish and need to admit, that food served in this restaurant brings memories of my childhood. Not only excellent and old fashioned Warsaw' style interior deserves highest marks, but high quality FOOD as well. I was expecting much and was well pleased and proud as Daquise proved to be my favourite Polish restaurant in London. Will be back for sure :)

This is a wonderful establishment. The food was absolutely superb. My wife is Polish, so I know a thing or two about its culinary traditions, and this was among the best Polish meals I have enjoyed. The setting is just right -- no affectations, just solid and real. And the service was superb.

Went there pre-Prom on September 10th. We had no idea Daquise had changed hands but decided to give the new version a go. We weren't disappointed and didn't experience the ifffy or slow service others have reported. The chefs serving the food are patently still in training - but it added a certain charm. The food was plentiful and good but not exceptional. Like others we thought it a tad over-priced. £7 for crayfish soup was too high and, to echo an earlier comment, £27 for hare seems way over the top. If I'm in South Kensington, though, it is probably where I'll go.

Very good. A huge step up from the cheap and cheerful Daquise. Seems much bigger, airer, not to mention classier. A totally different spin on the food - brilliantly cooked roasts and stews, you can taste really great ingredients there. And all seems fresh, which makes such a difference to things like dumplings and golabki - those are divine. A Gessler take on steak tatare was the best I've ever had and I've also had a roasted veal in sauce of carmelised leeks which was nothing short of phenomenal. The only problem is that they change the menu a lot (been slightly different every time I've been so far), but virtually everything I've had there has was superb. Apart from the eel - that's a bit too cultivated a taste so I wouldn't recommend it. For everything else - go. Service is nice, polite and warm. It's not super-slick and probably wouldn't be great when you're in a hurry but their food is to be savoured rather than swallowed. I really recommend it.

I had a meal at Gessler last night and can concur on the poor service. It's a shame, as I really want them to succeed, partly because of the sense of continuity with the former Daquise which the management clearly respects, and partly because the quality of the cooking really is good. However, the service was terrible. Waiters had to be prompted to take orders and table service was chaotic. My companions pierogi arrived hot and were served from the pan. A little later the same chef brought over a bowl of marinated beetroot from a table and spooned some out onto my plate. Sometime later someone came out with some warm horseradish sauce. The plating of our main courses, when they eventually arrived, was similarly episodic. My 'noodles' (actually some watery dumplings and one of the few culinary disappointments in the meal) arrived a good 5 minutes after the chef came out with creamy veal escalopes onto which they were to sit and the accompanying carrots were even later than that. It's a nice idea having the chefs spoon your dish out onto the table, but it's plainly not working. The restaurant was not full to bursting and they surely must have been expecting the four parties of post-prommers of which we were one?

The informal chaos would be much easier to take if the prices were a little more homespun. My starter was nice, but £6 for a small portion of an already-prepared beetroot with horseradish sauce seems excessive, as does £10 for 6 pierogi. I'm prepared to pay for good food but given the simplicity of both ingredients and preparation these dishes this seems too much. And £27 is a price I would not expect to pay for even the nicest hare with beetroot (and aforementioned watery galushka) outside of a hotel or haute cuisine restaurant. I hope Gessler sorts themselves out as the manager was affable and the renovation quite lovely.

In a town full of modern 'concept' restaurants, how refreshing to find a little slice of old school. The food at Daquise is superb and the service very down to earth - served right by your table from the saucepan! This feeling is reflected in the decor, which after the recent refurbishment does an excellent job of conjuring up traditional Eastern European austerity. Prices aren't quite so nostalgic, but considering the location and the fact that the owners have the only restaurant in Poland awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand two years running it's very good value. I've been twice now and look forward to my next visit. I recommend the steak tartare!

Having read some of the reviews below I was worried that Daquise would disappoint. I had no reason to worry.

The food was delicious and plentiful, the service was swift, friendly and polite, and the decor understated yet stylish.

We went on a Friday and enjoyed an intimate and unhurried evening. Try out the eel and veal dishes.

Brilliant place. Tastefully done - elegant, yet understated. Homely feel with the chefs walking around preparing and serving food - great idea. We had roasted goose stuffed with buckwheat and an absolutely divine roasted leg of veal in leak and shallot sauce and they were both superb, as was the steak tatare (easily the best I've eaten) and Ruskie dumplings (I think this is what the lady below refers to as the disgusting concoction, which I find puzzling). Service attentive and personal. Don't recommend for vegetarians but honestly going to a Polish place (and I concur that this is the best Polish place in London) for a veggie option is like going to a curry house for an omlette and chips - just stay at home. Having been to the former guise of Daquise, this is in an entirely different league to the shabby, microwave-reliant establishment that it was before. This is now one of the restaurants to recommend London-wide. I can only hope it maintains the standard...

What a travesty of the former wonderful Daquise. It's now a no-go area for vegetarians, with, bland, rude service. When we discovered that the advertised vegetable pierogi, when they arrived, ( ordered in desperation as nothing else meat-free and attractive on menu) had bacon in them, there was muttered apology and some horrid potato and cheese concoction replaced them. We were still charged full price for the meal. Disgusting. Where have the lovely traditional dishes like (vegetable) borstch gone? Daquise used to be wonderful and a unique legend (for veggies and non-veggies alike) in South Ken. Now a faceless shadow of its former self. Shame, shame, shame.

Bland, overpriced food, impolite service, dreadful interior, and to add insult to injury, they have no concept of credit card! I was embarrased enough not to go there again

This place is by far the best Eastern European in town. The food is fabulous - beats the likes of Wodka and Baltic hands down! Plus the experience of chefs wondering around is really very cool. They need to sort out the interior as it's indeed dated but otherwise 10/10.

Its under new management from the Polish resturantor family, the Gesslers who run Warsaw’s best... its a whole new set up, and the food is absolutly fantastic, this now the best Polish restuarant in london, dont be fooled by the interior..